I think the honey is the key to getting a really red beer with the OG that is typical for the style.

the caraaroma and melanoidin malts provide the color as well as malty aroma. Trust me.. I added the honey as a simple ABV boost; 1lb of honey won't add to the color and very little if any flavor. In fact, the boost in abv actually pushed it to the very upper edge of the BJCP guidelines. Leaving it out will make a slightly lower ABV version. Adding it gets about 1% higher ABV

the caraaroma and melanoidin malts provide the color as well as malty aroma. Trust me.. I added the honey as a simple ABV boost; 1lb of honey won't add to the color and very little if any flavor. In fact, the boost in abv actually pushed it to the very upper edge of the BJCP guidelines. Leaving it out will make a slightly lower ABV version. Adding it gets about 1% higher ABV

What I'm saying is, if you drop the honey but still want to keep the OG of the original recipe, you're going to have to add more base malt, and if you do that, you're going to dilute the deep redness. It'll still probably be red, but more of a brownish red.

Just brewed this on Saturday, 11gallons. Differences: Nottingham, by mistake added the honey at the beginning of the boil and 2oz of Hallertaurer at 60m and 1.5oz of Willamette at 30m. Gravity was a little off, but we will see how it turns out.

So this summer I have decided to re-try two recipes that I had made in the past but messed them up so bad that they had to be dumped, this recipe was one. Originally I let the mashed wort sit overnight and cool off before I boiled it the next day. This caused something very bad to happen and the aroma on that batch was so bad that it made me gag and I had to eventually dump it because I just couldn't get past the smell.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. This time big difference. My processes have improved over the years and I have eliminated stupid mistakes. The wort smelled wonderful. I only added 1/2 pound of honey since that is all I had on hand and I used rehydrated US-05. This morning I checked and the yeast are still chewing away.

So this summer I have decided to re-try two recipes that I had made in the past but messed them up so bad that they had to be dumped, this recipe was one. Originally I let the mashed wort sit overnight and cool off before I boiled it the next day. This caused something very bad to happen and the aroma on that batch was so bad that it made me gag and I had to eventually dump it because I just couldn't get past the smell.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. This time big difference. My processes have improved over the years and I have eliminated stupid mistakes. The wort smelled wonderful. I only added 1/2 pound of honey since that is all I had on hand and I used rehydrated US-05. This morning I checked and the yeast are still chewing away.

Just brewed this on Saturday, 11gallons. Differences: Nottingham, by mistake added the honey at the beginning of the boil and 2oz of Hallertaurer at 60m and 1.5oz of Willamette at 30m. Gravity was a little off, but we will see how it turns out.

you'll still make a great beer. this recipe is very forgiving. Notty is a good alternative yeast. Not as clean as US-05 or WLP-001 but still a good choice. adding the honey at the beginning of boil isn't a big deal and the hops are fine too.